Effects of the Great Depression

The overall effects of the Great Depression were felt on a global scale. All of the various countries ended up with problems due to not enough demand for their products. Only essential items such as food were being imported and exported. Consumers didn’t have the money to buy many of the other things that they used to. The prices for these commodities weren’t getting what they used to so it was hard to make any profit at all.

Unemployment rates were soaring as businesses and factories all over had to shut their doors. With no one to buy their products there was very little reason for people to stay on. At first many of them just cut down their hours and then the number of employees. As things progressed though the businesses had to shut their doors all together. There wasn’t the access to credit that there once was. The government wasn’t able to help these businesses to meet their debts and so everyone was left out in the cold. As a result of no money, many families found themselves living on the streets in poverty. Some parents choose to give their children to people that could care for them, and often the entire family was broken up. People died from hunger and illness while others seems to just give up on their desire to live. People also lost a great deal of faith in their government. They had always expected they would take care of them. Now there weren’t any programs in place to assist them. There just weren’t enough shelters or food banks to offer the vast amount of supplies people needed. Everyone was on their own and it was a very difficult type of life to try to live. Not all of the effects of the Great Depression were negative though. Many people learned some valuable things about managing their money and doing the best they could with what they had. Children from the depression grew up to be very imaginative and inventive. They also appreciated the things that they had access to in their life because they never forgot just how little they once had.